Agri-food industry

Illicit Trade in the Agri-Food Industry

Illicit trade in the agri-food sector affects a variety of products manufactured and sold all around the world. Food fraud can manifest itself in a variety of manners, ranging from the replacement of key ingredients with cheaper alternatives, wrongly or incorrectly labelling practices, selling ordinary foods as organic, unfairly using origin or animal welfare quality logos, and counterfeiting and marketing food after its expiration date.

In South-East Asia, the private sector has been trying to prevent sugar smuggling to avoid drastic price drops due to illegally imported sugar threatening local industries on which locals farmers depend for their livelihoods. Confed, the largest organization of local sugarcane farmers in the Philippines, argued that “smuggling would ultimately gobble up the sugar industry” (GMA News Online, 2010). Tea is another commodity whose smuggling represents a major strain on Pakistan’ finances, one of the world’s largest importer and consumer of tea. Reports indicate that the illicit tea business in the country accounts for more than a third, half by some estimates, of the total market. According to Unilever Pakistan Limited, “business operations and profitability of legitimate commercial importers and packers have been severely curtailed” (The Express Tribune, 2014). In Italy, organized criminal groups are now involved in the commodity value chain of Italian food products exported abroad (Reuters, 2017). Economic activities in the Italian agri-food sector managed by criminal organizations were estimated to be worth some 15.4 billion euros in 2014 alone (EURISPES, 2015).